Reuters

Tesco posts strongest UK growth for three years

Tesco’s new UK managing director Chris Bush. Tesco, the world’s third largest retailer, showed that its turnaround plan was starting to work as it posted its highest sales growth in three years over the highly competitive Christmas period. Photo: Reuters

Britain’s Tesco plc said its £1 billion turnaround plan for its home market was starting to work as it posted its highest sales growth in three years over the crucial Christmas period.

Tesco, the world’s third-largest retailer, beat forecasts for underlying sales growth, regaining an edge after a dismal Christmas in 2011 prompted the group’s first profit warning in 20 years and a strategic rethink.

Shares in Tesco – which also announced the appointment of Chris Bush as managing director to run its key British business – rose more than two per cent to hit their highest in a year.

The outcome was driven by a stronger food performance and an 18 per cent rise in online food sales, though general merchandise – including electricals – was still a drag on growth.

The company did, however, benefit from easy comparative numbers, as in the same six week period of Tesco’s last financial year like-for-like sales had fallen 2.3 per cent.

“They’ve really done well in the UK, showing the strongest evidence to date that they’re regrouping,” said analyst Clive Black at brokerage Shore Capital. “The momentum on Tesco is now more up than down.”

Tesco is battling to regain momentum against a weak UK economy, with consumers fretting over job security and a squeeze on incomes. The firm has suffered more than rivals, in part because it sells more discretionary non-food goods on which shoppers have been cutting back most.

In April the company launched a strategy to revive UK sales, investing in more staff, revamped food ranges, refined marketing and smartened stores that give more space to food.

Yet some shareholders are still to be convinced of its effectiveness.

“The expression ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’ comes to mind,” said one top 20 investor in Tesco. “The comparisons are flattering and there are still plenty of structural issues to resolve.

“Have you been in a Tesco store recently and noticed a difference in the offering? Because I haven’t.”

With consumer price inflation running at 2.7 per cent, Tesco is still seeing negative real growth in the UK, as are its so-called big four grocery rivals – Wal-Mart’s Asda, J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison.

On Wednesday Sainsbury posted a 0.9 per cent rise in revenue, excluding fuel and new stores, for the 14 weeks to January 5, while on Monday Morrison reported a 2.5 per cent like-for-like fall, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, for the six weeks to December 30.

Asda is not due to report until February.

Industry data showed Sainsbury posted the highest sales growth of the big four in the 12 weeks to December 23 and was the only one to raise its market share.

That data also showed Tesco’s sales growth was the second highest among the big four and also highlighted much stronger growth at the discount end of the market, led by Aldi and Lidl, and, at the premium end, at John Lewis’s Waitrose.

Tesco, which trails Carrefour and Wal-Mart by sales, said group sales rose 3.9 per cent excluding petrol.

While the firm may be making progress in the UK it still has problems overseas. Though the group has flagged an exit from the United States, in South Korea – its biggest overseas market – legislation allowing local governments to impose shorter trading hours is hurting sales.

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